A full digital darkroom

Affinity Photo has made a name for itself in the Apple landscape as a low-cost alternative to Photoshop, and was selected by Apple as the best Mac app of 2015.

Its feature set is impressive, including RAW processing, panorama stitching, and Pantone support. Photographers can also adjust white balance, shadows, highlights, exposure and clarity to improve their shots, and there’s a toolbox packed with everything you’d expect from a premium image editor – including a background eraser, paint mixer, healing brush, clone stamp, and warping tools. There’s a great set of filters too, all of which are fully customizable and can be layered on top of one another.

The Mac edition of Affinity Photo costs £39.99, US$49.99, AU$79.99. We expect the Windows version to command a similar price, but you can try it now completely free by taking part in the public beta. The beta is compatible with 64-bit versions of Windows 7, 8 and 10.

The best free photo editor 2016

Whatever your level of expertise, there’s a free photo editor that will give you all the tools you need to make your pictures look amazing. These are our three favorite free tools for optimizing your images.